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Plot of Genesis
This is a condensed retelling of the plot of the Genesis campaign. See the main article for more details on each section. Part I Prologue Tahl and Leander Lightstruck, two veterans of the crumbling Firstlight Legion, see a vision of the Firstborn God and set out on a quest to Northmarch to revive Him. Here they meet and join forces with Eldrin, the arctic elf hero, and Lantis, the gnome summoner. Together, they locate a Janastone. The Monastery and Torm The party brings the Janastone to a monastery on Jana's Peak, meeting Nel Stormeyes on the way, who joins them. At the monastery, the priest Stenbruk has a series of visions of the future. He points the party in the direction of an ancient tome called the ''Renascentia Arcanum'', containing knowledge on the birth and death of gods, which may help to revive Aal. One of the volumes is in the neighbouring totalitarian theocracy of Torm, so the party heads there, joining forces with the High Mage Xenovitus on the way. In Torm, Tahl is captured. He is rescued, but at the cost of the lives of Leander Lightstruck and Torm IV, and resulting in the disfigurement of Lantis' face. Escape from Torm The party narrowly escapes from Torm and ends up caught in a struggle between the werewolves of the Cult of the Winter Moon and Hunters. They inadvertently create a colossus of barely-restrained magic, who wreaks devestation on the surrounding countryside. Xenovitus teleports it -- and himself -- to the middle of the capital of Torm. The party picks up the dart collector and merchant, Jovian. Tan-Sul The party meets a Living Janastone worshiped by the werewolves, named Tan-Sul, who gives Nel the task of retrieving two lost clay urns to prove himself. Xenovitus, stuck in Torm again, witnesses the magic colossus being "tamed" by a commoner woman, who is soon named Torm V. Xenovitus rejoins the party but is soon after killed by a wolf while hunting for food with Lantis. The party then stumbles into a prison in Azreidel, run by the House of Mir, and tangle with its disenchanter warden. They leave, taking with them a problematic prisoner, a dwarf artificer named Belgar Brokkisnev, to get him out of the hair of the warden. They reach Dakan, a city in Azreidel run by the House of Vask. They seek work and find several opportunities, and decide to focus on one offered by a man named Adiq to retrieve a package from a hermit in a nearby ruin. The ruin is a long-abandoned dwarven outpost from the First Nexus War, where the hermit gives them two clay urns to give to Adiq. The party decides to instead deliver them to Tan-Sul, who had requested the same urns, and for a "cut" of any profits the hermit, Norr, takes them there quickly by traversing the Grey Demesne. The Delivery The "trial" complete, Tan-Sul gives Nel a greater task: deliver Tan-Sul itself to Jana's Peak. For this, Tan-Sul fuses its crystalline body with Nel's Qashra body. To get back to the monastery the part goes north to the edge of the mountains, and hires a strange dwarf guide who leads them into the ruins of Brovu, also dwarven in origin. He assures them it's a shortcut, but he was also searching for treasure here. They decide to follow and face myriad horrors within. In Brovu's library, Tahl discovers one of the volumes of the Renascentia Arcanum he is seeking, and are intercepted by one of the Collectors, Adelbern. Adelbern tries to take the book from Tahl, explaining he too was a Lantern. They ultimately loot the treasures of Brovu, but the dwarf, Boris, does not lead them out. Instead, Adelbern takes them out through the Brilliant Sanctum. To Regnis At Jana's Peak, Nel is welcomed back into the Monastery while the others wait outside. They go down the mountain to the nearby town of Xandris, and hear about strange happenings in Regnis to the north surrounding the coronation of Voleta III, who is already being called the "Sun Queen." While waiting for Nel to be done in the Monastery -- a process they are assured will take days to weeks -- they decide to investigate, and go north. They are accosted on the way by Ernestine, a bounty hunter formerly of the Regnisian Royal Guard. Another bounty hunter, the Pyromaniac, soon joins the fight as well. Things escalate and Tahl accidentally transforms himself into a beam of light, transporting himself to the Necros Union in Noctis. Lantis and Belgar decides to go to Valencia, the City of Colours in Regnis, where Belgar set up a temporary workshop and Lantis joined the Dyemakers Guild. Jovian takes to wandering in the immediate area, looking for darts to add to his collection. Part II Two Months Later Two months later, Tahl makes it back from Noctis and helps gather the others in Solendis, the capital of Regnis. They are able to meet with Queen Voleta III, who reveals that there are three volumes of the Renascentia Arcanum, and that one-half of a volume is in Solendis, and there is another extant volume she knows about. In exchange for allowing the party to study Regnis' portions of the book, she asks that they go retrieve the outstanding copy from Heimcanaan in the Meithrin region, across the sea. They agree, but their boat is destroyed midway after an ambush by sahuagin, costing Eldrin's life. They wash up on the shore of Meithrin. To Rakbana The party treks across the Mahnen Desert, picking up two new members: the harssaf battle-monk Rakid, and the shapeshifting desert hermit Darr Ude. The two help the party cross the desert, battling gnolls on the way. They arrive at the Heimvald and contend with an ongoing fey incursion by the Autumn Viscount and the lurking Immortal of Death before reaching their destination: the settlement of Heimcanaan. The Heimwargs do have the volume the party is after, but will only part with it if they go to the dangerous wasteland of Rakbana to the east and bring back the missing Immortal of Birth, Avarshinah. They escape through the chaos of the fey, cross the hazardous Unborn Mountains and make it to Rakbana. The Replenisher In the acid-washed wasteland of Rakbana the party contends with Albrek Bane again, and through a series of terrible coincidences, bad choices and accidents, they "kill" Albrek Bane and Lantis, rolling up their essence with that of the Void Immortal. Tahl's soul is also split in two: a "purified" Tahl, and his darker half, who takes the name Lath and joins the party. With this, the Void Immortal is reincarnated. He leaves the party, and they take what is left of their numbers and find the Temple of Birth. Here, Avarshinah meets them, and agrees to go back only if they slay an entity in an acid volcano of Rakbana, which she claims is causing the wasteland to exist in its current horrible state. They go to the volcano in question, being given a ride by Captain Elias Ventir and his technomantic walking landship, the Morpheus. Here they are pursued by the Collectors, in addition to numerous other dangers, but they manage to find the entity they seek. It is another Living Janastone: the first, called the "Replenisher." They realise that the Replenisher is tied to all the jade moss found in Rakbana, and appears to be producing more Living Janastones. They destroy the Replenisher, and return to Avarshinah. Culmination Avarshinah goes back with the party to Heimcanaan, which is under attack by Tormsmen, who are also seeking the Renascentia Arcanum. The party gets the book and flees to "Safe" Bay to the north, where they secure passage back to Northmarch. Here they find Torm and Regnis at war over the book, a struggle which is centered around Jana's Peak monastery. At the monastery, they find most of the powers they've encountered to this point locked in a confusing melee. All Living Janastones have been called here, having been manufactured by Avarshinah's creation, the Replinisher, from the jade moss in Rakbana (so coloured because the moss contains tiny fragments of Janastones) for exactly this purpose. The Sun Queen wishes to become the new Immortal of Light, Torm V wants to reincarnate Ephereos, the Living Janastones and the Cult of the Winter Moon want to reopen the gateways to the Cradle of Creation, and Purified Tahl wants to raise the Sun God. The party sides with Tahl, using the stored-up energy of all the Living Janastones and the gathered tomes to facilitate Tahl's transformation into the Prismatic Immortal.